This invention generally relates to wheel assemblies for supporting weight-bearing frame structures, and more particularly to swivel wheel assemblies for use with baby strollers, baby carriages, high chairs, walkers, seats, and similar perambulatory furniture for children and babies.
Many forms of baby furniture include wheel assemblies to facilitate movement of babies and children, repositioning of furniture, etc. It is a commonplace expedient to ship and store such items in knock-down condition, thereby economizing on space and shipping charges. The items are assembled either at the point of sale by mechanically trained workers or at the point of use by the buyer. A current trend in sales of such items is toward discount marketing, in which the items are sold in knock-down condition, and the buyer is required to assemble the components. Many customers do not have sufficient mechanical skills, and further lack the tools required for assembly of the knock-down apparatus. Thus there is a growing need for knock-down assemblies that require few or no tools and that require only rudimentary mechanical skill and manual dexterity.
There is also a trend in manufacturing toward a modular approach in which a plurality of items in a product line are designed to incorporate the same modular components. This approach requires a broad vision of a product line and particular attention to detail, so that the modules interfit across the product line.
More specifically with respect to baby furniture, many strollers, high chairs, carriages, and the like employ wheel assemblies to facilitate movement of the child or repositioning of the furniture for convenience and cleaning purposes, and the like. A modular wheel assembly for such broad use would be advantageous. Likewise, a modular wheel assembly should be easily assembled to the apparatus or furniture to ease the assembly of items in knock-down condition. There is a lack of such a modular wheel assembly in the prior art.